This article is not attacking socialists nor am I saying that every one of them is a narcissist. However, I think that socialist ideas in our country today are encouraging selfishness in Americans. Unfortunately, I am limited in the size of my article, so I am not going to talk about its history. But I recommend anyone who is socialist to study its history and the end result for countries that adopted it.

First, I want to acknowledge the views of the pro-socialist crowd. I understand why free college and healthcare sounds good, considering how expensive they are these days. I believe these are issues that need to be solved and universities and the healthcare industry need to find a way to control costs better. I do not believe increasing taxes and having the government subsidize it is the answer. But that is beside the point, I am just saying that I understand how socialists feel.

Let's forget socialism for a second and just consider life in general. Most things in life do not come free. Every good and service we consume costs money. Your iPhone costs money. This Acer laptop I am using to type this article cost money. It cost the company who manufactured my pull up bar money. You get my point, barely anything is free. That is one reason why we hear the saying "there is no free lunch." But when you get something for free, you take advantage of it. There are free food samples at a store. A coupon can give me a free medium beverage from McDonald's. Almost everyone does this and it is completely normal.

So how will someone respond if they could get free education or free healthcare? Of course, they are going to take the opportunity. That is why many of my fellow peers voted for Bernie Sanders in 2016. That is not putting a guilt trip on anybody, that is just human nature. But here is the problem, what you get for free still costs money. That food sample one eats is costing that company money, especially if you decide you don't like it. Yet a food sample is not that expensive, same with a free medium beverage from a fast food company. But education or healthcare costs thousands of dollars, so that money has to come from somewhere. It certainly doesn't from the healthcare industry or the education industry, it comes from taxpayers. Socialist candidates typically focus on taxing the "rich," but who are the rich exactly? The billionaires, like Bill Gates, or hard working business people? The money going towards that free good or service you are receiving is coming from money that someone else most likely earned.

Most people who support socialism do not think of this. A good video illustrates it by asking students if they would be fine taking high GPAs from hard-working college students and giving a big portion of it to those with lower GPAs. Pretend that the man in the video asked you the same question, would you be fine taking something you earned and giving to someone else for free? I know someone will say the rich did not earn their income, but that is stereotyping an entire economic class of people. And let's say they didn't earn their money through labor, but through stock gains. Should we take money from their gains because they didn't earn it? People win money from the lottery and gambling, and I don't see politicians saying we should take their money and put it towards education. People who have capital gains received it fair and square, that is just how the stock market works.

I think most socialists, deep down, know the things I have pointed out. They just don't realize it because of selfishness. Again, I don't say this to condemn, it is a part of human nature. Everyone can be selfish, most of the time unconsciously. The reason I say selfish in this case is that they are focused on taking money from others so that they themselves can enjoy a service for free. They are not considering the effect on the person they are taking money from.

When Bernie Sanders promoted free education for students like me, I had a realization. As much as this would benefit me, how could I feel happy knowing that a tax plan like his would take away more of my dad's income, my brother's income, my aunt's income, etc.? How could I feel happy knowing that someone else's hard earned money was taken against their will and used to pay for my education? That would not be fair. In fact, I would go so far as to say it is immoral. I am not ignoring issues of expensive education or healthcare costs. Nor am I ignoring the duty of those with more wealth to help those who are less fortunate economically. But the rich and poor have many common moral obligations, one of them being to respect each other's possessions and pursuits. One of the Ten Commandments is that "thou shalt not covet." Other religions have promoted the same idea, that we should not covet our neighbor's riches and property. Even non-religious people realize that coveting someone else's achievements is wrong. It is a selfish desire.

I hope you see the danger in socialism causing more narcissism. We already have a narcissistic issue in our society, we do not need another institution to encourage it further.